Read about our day to day adventures around the Farne Islands as we endeavour to keep you up to date with what's happening to all the wildlife and everything else that happens.

Monday, 7 May 2018

Eggs have been spotted

The Shags and Guillemots are now on eggs. It may only be a few but that's it the breeding season has begun. I'm not sure how the Shag season will be as we have seen lots of dead Shags along the shoreline because of the "Beast from the East" and very unsettled weather after that, but fingers crossed they make a good recovery. When I looked back at the records from last year we had our 1st shag chick hatch on the 1st May but this year the 1st egg was spotted on the 1st May, so they are a month behind. Hopefully its nothing to worry about as their breeding season is not as critical as other seabirds because they live here all year long and hopefully this is just a little blip and they will bounce back.

The Guillemots look like they are doing really well and the weather does not seem to have affected them as much as the shags. They are a hardy seabird and must put up with a lot of weather all the time. Its nice to see them again and the noise around the islands is great. The fights and the squabbles is part of life on the cliff faces and this season is no different and long may it last.